The present invention relates to ball tension devices for controlling tension in yarn being fed to textile machines to obtain substantially uniform tension for enhanced efficiency of operation and quality of the textile product being processed or manufactured.
Ball tension devices have proven to be highly successful in controlling the efficient manufacture of high quality textile products by maintaining substantially uniform tension in yarn being fed in textile manufacturing and processing equipment of various types, such as textile winders, warpers, spinning machines, knitting machines, and the like. The original ball tension device which has become universally used and has proven to be highly successful in providing uniform tension in a traveling yarn with resulting high quality products at high operating efficiency is the type in which a ball is retained in a cylindrical housing on a seat at the bottom of the housing and at the top of a yarn passageway through which a yarn travels upwardly between the ball and seat and through the housing, with the ball applying a tensioning force to the yarn and being freely movable from the seat under the influence of variations in the tension of the yarn entering the device so as to vary the applied tension and thereby produce a substantially uniform tension in the yarn exiting the device. Such a ball tension device is used with each yarn being fed to a particular machine so that all of the yarns are fed to the machine with substantially equal and uniform tension.
Variations in this basic yarn tension device have been developed over the years for particular uses. For example, various yarn guide configurations have been developed, the size and number of balls have been varied, the direction of yarn travel has been varied to exit to the side rather than primarily upwardly or to travel transversely across the seat and under the ball rather than upwardly between the ball and seat, and various combinations with other equipment components have been developed, such as with balloon breakers and yarn break sensors.